Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Meatballs

Mix everything together by hand. Form into balls and place on a cookie sheet lined with foil or parchment paper. Put them in a 350 degree oven until browned,if they don't brown enough on top toss them under the broiler for a minute. Put the meatballs in the sauce and simmer till cooked or for a couple hours for extra flavor.

I like meatballs. Meatballs are good. When I first started making them I didn't add egg or breadcrumbs (much to the dismay of a certain buddy of mine), nor did I brown them. I just took wads of beef and tossed them into the sauce. They tended to fall apart when I tried to stir them and they really just weren't as tasty or tender as they could have been. I have since changed my ways. This is how I do them now. I still do only beef, but if you want to do half and half pork or italian sausage or whatever. Go nuts, this is a concept not a hard and fast rule. I also use 93% ground beef since I don't like them too fatty and the egg holds them together just fine. The ground beef I get comes in these little tubs, which I love since I just mix everything up in them. One less dish to do. I also always make tomato sauce when I am making meatballs, so I have some garlic paste to put in. Garlic paste rules. You could also add some parmesan if you wanted. I would if I had some, but I'm not really into it in general so I don't keep it on hand. Basically you just toss in everything, breadcrumbs, seasonings, garlic paste, egg and mix it up. You really have to do it by hand in my experience, nothing else works. This is just for demonstration. I am taking pictures with my other hand so I have to put down the camera, use both hands to mix, then wash up before I can take more. Just mix it up real well.Heh, now you could bake this and call it meatloaf. Or you could make golf ball sized balls, or however big you like them, and toss them onto a cookie sheet. I usually line the sheet with tinfoil sprayed with olive oil. Easier cleanup that way and they don't stick. Now put them in a 350 degree oven till they brown. I have found that often the bottom starts getting brown well before the top. You can either flip them (which I find to be a pain), toss them under the broiler (which is what I usually do), or deal with it. Like I said, I toss them under the broiler. And they come out like this. I usually don't cook them all the way in the oven since I put them in sauce and simmer them for an hour or two.See the way the sauce is clinging to them? That is what pureeing the sauce gets you. Thanks to the crumbs and egg they come out nice and soft, but not falling apart. Finishing them in the sauce also adds a great flavor to it. Sometimes I put them on pasta, but tonight it's sandwiches. I put on some mozzarella that I get from an Italian deli down the street and toss it under the broiler to brown the cheese and toast half the roll.Then I eat it.